Using UTM parameter tracking with beehiiv

UTM parameter tracking in beehiiv makes it easier than ever to gain insights into your audience. With our automated UTM parameters, you can focus on creating great content while beehiiv takes care of the tracking. This guide will walk you through how to use UTM parameters within beehiiv.

What are UTM parameters?

UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters are essential tools that help you track where your users are coming from, how they interact with your content, and more. These parameters are added to the URLs you share, providing valuable insights into your audience's behavior. 

UTM parameters are tags that you add to the end of your URLs to track the performance of campaigns and content across different platforms. There are five types of UTM parameters, but beehiiv focuses on the 3 most popular ones:

• UTM Source: Identifies where the traffic is coming from (e.g., Facebook, Google).
• UTM Medium: Indicates the medium or channel (e.g., email, CPC).
• UTM Campaign: Helps identify the specific campaign (e.g., Summer_Sale).

By adding these parameters to your URLs, you can track where users are coming from, what they are interacting with, and how they found your site.

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How UTM parameters work in beehiiv

beehiiv automates UTM parameter tracking in your newsletters, making it easier to gain insights into your audience's behavior without a manual setup.

When you publish content and include links in your beehiiv newsletters, UTM parameters are automatically added. These parameters track the source, medium, and campaign associated with the link, helping you understand how your content is performing.

For example, if you send a newsletter with a link to your website, the UTM parameters might look like this:

https://www.yourwebsite.com?utm_source=beehiiv&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=your_campaign_name 

UTM parameters allow you to see in tools like Google Analytics exactly how many users came from your newsletter, which links they clicked, and more.

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beehiiv UTM parameters

By default, beehiiv enables the following UTM parameters for your posts:

• UTM Source: Your publication domain (e.g., beehiiv.com).
• UTM Medium: 'Email' if the user is receiving the newsletter via email, or 'Referral' if they are viewing it online.
• UTM Campaign: A URL-friendly version of your post's title (e.g., 'my-awesome-post').

These UTM parameters are automatically added to your post links, so you don't need to do anything to set them up. You can also disable this option in your account, as detailed below. 

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How to add your own UTM parameters in beehiiv

If your organization has a specific naming convention or you prefer to use custom parameters, you can manually set the UTM Source, Medium, and Campaign in beehiiv to suit your tracking needs. However, we recommend using the default settings to simplify the process.

To adjust your UTM parameters, navigate to Settings > Choose Publication > General Info, and scroll down to the UTM Analytics section. Here, you can customize the UTM parameters for Source, Medium, and Campaign by entering your desired values in the respective fields. Changes are saved automatically.

If you prefer not to track UTM parameters, you can disable this feature by toggling off the Automatic UTM Tagging option. By default, this setting is turned on.